Anaerobic pre-treatment of domestic sewage using UASB systems offers numerous advantages over aerobic systems, such as lower energy requirements, reduced excess sludge production, reduced chemical use, increased energy recovery in the form of biogas and low operational and maintenance requirements.
The first high-rate application of anaerobic sewage treatment consisted of a 64 m3 UASB plant constructed in Cali, Colombia. Based on the excellent performance observed at this plant the UASB system has since been widely applied for the pre-treatment of sewage in tropical and semi-tropical countries. In particular, Brazil and India have extensively adopted the UASB technology.
In 2009 - 2010 Biothane has performed an extensive survey of 11 full-scale municipal UASB sewage treatment plants located in Brazil, Egypt, India and United Arab Emirates. Based on the results from this study, Biothane has designed Upthane™, the optimised municipal UASB solution. Providing enhanced energy recovery and decreased energy consumption Upthane is specifically designed to meet the needs of the municipal market and is perfectly suited to developing countries with warm climates (sewage temperature > 15°). Upthane™ is capable of removing 60 to 80% of the organic load, which significantly reduces oxygen demand in the aerobic post-treatment system. Under appropriate conditions an Upthane™ based WWTP can be a net energy producer. Upthane™ has a modular design and as such can easily be adapted to different flows from the very small to the very large.
Biothane has designed the Surat wastewater treatment plant located in India, which at the time (2004) was the largest UASB based sewage treatment plant in the world. Furthermore Veolia Water operate the Ajman UASB based sewage treatment plant in the United Arab Emirates.
